Over The Hills And Far Away
by ihatewriting
Summary: After a devastating divorce, all Hinata wanted was to run far away and seek shelter from the storm. All she wanted from this sleepy new town was a new life and a new job, but little did she know that her new boss would be a gorgeous man who could set her heart on fire. God help her - he may be her salvation or her undoing. Rating may change later. NaruHina.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N:** Getting back to writing after a very long break! Please forgive me if this is a bit unpolished. I'm rather rusty.

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What made Shino angry was not the money she lost. She had always been low maintenance and she could get by on what she had and he knew she was a good saver. What made him angry was not the pain in her eyes. He was a firm believer that each trauma only produced a finite amount of grief, so, to put things bluntly, she would get over it. What made him angry was the stuttering. Over a decade of speech therapy (most of which they had gone through together) unraveled. A hard-earned steady (albeit slow) tongue undone that fickle, philandering wretch. The humiliating divorce bludgeoned her composure, leaving her only with anxiety and self doubt. The stuttering was a manifestation of twisted nerves which she failed to suppress, too tumultuous to be hidden away under a veneer of calm.

What Shino saw when he heard her stutter was a decade of hard work down the drain, a regression toward a weaker, unhappier self. It reminded him or a time, years ago, when he had seen a newly formed beehive, about a month old, destroyed by bored teenagers. A home that the bees spent most of their six-week lifespans building, beaten down with a baseball bat (it had taken more swings than he thought) for the sake of a few laughs. They hadn't been thinking and Shino was glad the swarm had attacked them not long after. Clearly, Junpei hadn't been thinking either when he decided to break her heart, take her money, and humiliate her. Shino hated seeing years of hard work carelessly dismantled, and he hoped that one day bees or maybe even hornets would attack Junpei, waking him from his wanton reverie and crippling his frivolous mind with fear and agony.

"N-n-nobody knuh-knuh-knows I-I'm hu-hu-here."

"Then we will keep it that way," Shino answered.

They heard Kiba's bedroom door swing open followed by the soft padding of Kiba's socked feet on the carpet.

"Yeah. Uh-huh. OK. Alright, thanks boss." Kiba shut off his phone and turned to Hinata with a grin that made Shino wonder if Malmute was part of his ancestry..

"Get some sleep soon, kid. You got an interview with my boss tomorrow! You were an accountant, yeah?"

"I-I w-was a-a pr-pr-pro-programmer b-b-but I-I c-can a-a-also d-d-o - "

"Knew you could do it, kid!" Kiba embraced Hinata in a bear hug, burrowing her face in his board chest, and ruffled her hair.

Shino could only heard the muffled utterances of Hinata's gratitude and her small, elegant hands lightly patting Kiba's back.

"Hinata, feel free to stay here for as long as you need. The sleeper sofa has been prepared for you," Shino said.

Hinata chirped out a stifled thank you and gave him two thumbs up as Kiba continued to smother her.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 1

Hinata got very little sleep that night. She spent about an hour reviewing accounting principles (most of which she had remembered for whatever reason), but most of her time was devoted to worrying about how to speak coherently tomorrow. She had been lucky to have overcome most of her stuttering before she graduated college. Regardless of how humiliating her K-12 years were, she never had to interview while worrying about a speech impediment. She wanted this job.

She walked toward the kitchen to refill her water and was greeted by an elderly and partially deaf Akamaru.

"Y-y-you can h-h-help m-me pur-practice for to-to-muh-morrow." _Wonderful, even Akamaru makes me nervous now._

Hinata practiced saying "Hello, my name is Hinata," to a bored Akamaru. She eventually found a wonderful trick that alleviated the stuttering significantly. She would form the sentence in her head, but before she could voice it, she had to solve a simple programming problem in her head. _What loop can create a capital A made of asterisks? Each stroke is comprised of two asterisks, let the height of the A equal 8, add an if statement in the loop to account for the horizontal stroke…_

"...Hello, my name is Hinata."

She found it even easier to speak to a sleeping Akamaru.

When Kiba awoke, Hinata had already made breakfast for the three of them. He was grateful that Shino ate only the oatmeal and the nine pancakes that Hinata stacked remained untouched. He fetched a plate from the cabinet and took two pancakes and added butter and syrup to them.

"O-only t-two?"

"Nah, these are for you kid," he said, handing the plate to Hinata while he took the remaining stack of seven pancakes and topped them with all the table's condiments.

"Disgusting," Shino muttered.

"So, Hinata," Kiba said in between chomps, "don't worry too much about the interview because I already told Naruto a little about you. So don't worry about talking all perfect or anything. Take as much time as you want. Go as slow as you need."

"Oh, I-I thought y-your buh-boss was a w-woman."

"Nah, he's a guy. Great guy. Kind of a jackass though."

The three finished their breakfast quickly and Shino left to hunt for a new type of morning beetle in the area before his noon lecture. A colleague of his from the Cognitive Science department believed that these beetles' communication methods could have provide significant applications to artificial intelligence. He could show Hinata the paper later if she liked. Hinata eagerly accepted.

The two remaining friends left the apartment after Hinata finished dressing. She invariably chose her trusty interview outfit - a smart gray suit with gray slacks, a white dress shirt, and black leather flats, the outfit she wore to almost every formal function. Kiba had insisted she wear something less "stick up your ass" but Hinata was surprisingly adamant, to which she was met with a "Tch, whatever."

As Kiba drove them to the Fox Hill Farms office, Hinata noted that the drive was farther than she expected.

"Yeah, he actually offered free room and board at the farm at first - you know, specially for this closest people. But you know, I didn't wanna give the poor guy trouble since I bring home a different girl every night, you know," Kiba grinned.

"Um, if you say so."

Kiba parked the car in the gravel driveway. Hinata stepped out into the October morning. The air was so cool and crisp that her lungs felt slightly ablaze. Kiba led her into the surprisingly large office. Hinata knew her family would balk at the gauche taste in decor, with its fiberboard wood paneling and faux crystal chandeliers. She liked it more for that reason. They came to a non-descript door directly across the pantry. Kiba banged on the door.

"Yo, boss, interview time," he shouted. He ruffled Hinata's hair, "Knock him dead, kid."

Hinata hurriedly straightened her hair in the nick of time, as the door opened a moment later.

"Hey there! I'm Naruto."

Hinata was left breathless.

He had hair of gold. Blonde was not the correct term. Blonde is yellow. His was gold and everything about him was gold. There was something luminous about his face. As though someone had lit a candle underwater. And that perfectly chiseled jaw. The massive scars on his cheeks did not detract from his beauty. His deep blue eyes reminded her of Junpei's. But Naruto's did not bore into her soul like her ex-husband's did the first time they met. His were patient. They were warm. His presence physically radiated warmth, and she could feel the aches and pains and frost melting from her bones. The inside of her body became smooth and liquid. _He is everything good about the sun._

It was not just a pretty face that brought her to her knees. He might not have been as classically handsome as Junpei, but there was an undeniable and uncompromising strength and kindness about him. She understood then how he had been able to run an entire farm at such a young age. He was a pillar. _He's the whale that carries and protects all the suckerfish in the sea._

A nudge from Kiba broke the spell.

"Oh, h-h-hello, m-my n-n-name is H-hinata," she said as she shook his hand.

"Great, come on in and we'll talk," he said as he ushered her into his office.

"See you both later," said Kiba, as he trudged off.

As she stepped inside, she saw a beautiful woman with red hair so bright it almost appeared pink. She had an elegant high forehead, and intelligent green eyes.

"This is my girlfriend, Sakura. She's agreed to, ah, help me with this interview."

"I-it's a puh-pleasure to m-meet you. M-M-my n-name is H-hinata."

Unwittingly her heart sank a little, but she wanted this job more than anything. She had no intention of pursuing Naruto, but she wanted more of his warmth. _You can be with her or any woman you want but please let me stay here. I think this is my last chance._ She also just needed a job.

"It's great to meet you too, Hinata. Unfortunately, Kiba hasn't told me as much as about as he told Naruto. Do you have a copy of your resume with you?"

"O-of course," Hinata fumbled briefly with her portfolio before handing the couple her resume.

"Wow, Kiba told me you were smart, but jeez! Computer Science from Berkeley and lead developer at IBM?" Hinata blushed and prepared to stammer some half-baked modest response, but fortunately Sakura interrupted.

"Your credentials are impressive, Hinata. But since this is an accounting and position, I have to ask, what kind of accounting experience do you have?"

"I-I took s-some c-classes in c-college. Up to a-ad-advanced acc-accounting, actually. A-also, I w-was the l-lead duh-developer on the l-late-latest v-version of S-smartbooks."

"Holy shit, really? That's the software that Iruka's always bugging me to get but it's way too expensive."

"So, Hinata, I think we can safely say you're a bit overqualified. Why would you forgo the position of lead developer at IBM for this job?"

"Ahh, erm - Hinata, we can move on to another question if you'd like," said Naruto uneasily as he gave Sakura a knowing look, which she unfortunately ignored..

"Um, I-I've just b-been having some puh-problems at home l-lately. S-so I wanted to m-move s-somewhere new. F-for a fresh start."

"But this is a bit too sudden of a shift, don't you think? You're basically changing industries when you're on the rise. It begs the question 'why?'"

"Sakura…" Naruto shot her a glare.

"I'm just saying, I'm not sure I would be able to leave such a promising career after I've put in so much work toward it. Look at how quickly she was promoted over the past 6 years."

"Yeah, but we're all different here."

"I-I um…" She took a deep breath. _It is what it is and they will probably find out at some point._ "M-my h-husband l-l-left me for th-the div-division muh-manag-g-ger's d-d-daughter. I c-couldn't b-be pr-productive th-there a-anymore."

She stared at grooves on the table, not wanting to look directly into their faces. But she felt Naruto's eyes on her. When she met his gaze, he gave her a sad smile and she knew her pain resonated with him. She looked away before it was too late.

"I...I'm so sorry, Hinata," said Sakura. Her face reddened a bit, seemingly embarrassed by the turn of their conversation.

"Um..i-it's o-okay."

"Um, before I forget, please complete this worksheet. We'd like to be able to gauge your knowledge and skills as accurately as possible," Sakura said as she handed Hinata a packet and a calculator.

"Sakura's really into tests because she's a doctor," Naruto said warmly, his eyes twinkling.

Hinata glanced at the packet and suddenly felt better. She was a terrible speaker but she had always been a strong test taker. She breezed through the first two pages, which contained mostly basic questions about financial statements and debit and credit mechanisms. The next several pages were a bit tougher, but nothing she was unprepared for. She felt herself warming up to Sakura more. _Thank you. This could only help._

When she finished, she handed the packet and calculator back to Sakura. The test had lifted her spirits considerably, which was probably why Sakura gave her an inquisitive smile as she remarked on how quickly it took. They briefly discussed the logistics of the position and began to wrap up the interview.

"Hinata, I'm sure you know that I can't pay you nearly as much as what you must have been paid at IBM."

"I u-understand. Th-that duh-doesn't c-c-concern me at the m-moment."

"Great. I think that's all we have for you. So, thanks for coming in, I'll definitely be in touch. I'll call you when I make a decision."

Hinata stood up to thank them for the interview and shake their hands. Sakura's first. Then Naruto's. His handshake was firm yet gentle. And his warmth reached her insides. His smile seemed to tell her that he understood. He understood everything. She felt hope and longing for a time when she could be happy again, a time when she could really thrive and not just keep her head above water.

Before she turned to leave, she decided to give one last push.

"I-I...I w-would b-be v-very h-happy if I g-got th-this j-job. Uh-again, th-th-thank y-you for this o-opp-opportunity."

Then she left.


End file.
